Broken: Emily's Story

24

He was wearing a purple hoody and jeans. I was wearing a black dress and heeled boots. We were at the park. We were by a tree. We had managed to get a guy to take a picture of us. He seemed glad to actually.

We used to hang out at the park, watch the kids playing, make up stories about the people we saw. Sometimes we would make out too, as they would say.

The picture was taken in April. A little girl had been hanging out with us, roughly ten years old. She reminded me of Ellie. If Ellie had had a twin, this would've been her. They looked the same. They acted the same.

The three of us played tag that day. But then her mom told her it was time to go. I never got the girl's name. Never saw her again either.

I shake the memory away. I go into the bathroom and grab my hoody. I take it back to Eric's room and throw it in my bag. It's just when I'm zipping up my bag when it hits again.

The images flash across my eyes again. I feel myself fall to my knees, my hands on the sides of my head.

I see my mom again. She had slit her wrists very deeply with the kitchen knife. The red of her blood turned almost pink in the water in the tub. She was pale as hell.

Mom? I call, even though she won't answer. Emily, a voice says. Emily! Eric says again, shaking me. The image fades and I'm looking at Eric. He looks worried. He's holding my wrists. I let my arms fall. He's still holding my wrists.

I'm sorry, I say, looking away. This hadn't happened in public before. Maybe because I never left the house. What the hell happened? Eric says. Nothing, I say.

That's bullshit, Eric says. I sigh. It was a memory. Of the day I found my mom, I say. I keep seeing her, I start and then choke up and start crying. I needed to stop doing that. He pulls me forward and hugs me. I think I fall asleep like that because I wake up on the floor.

It's dark and Eric's holding me, asleep. I gently pull away from him. I pull the music player from my bag. I quietly leave his room and go and sit on his front porch. I turn on the player and find my favourite song and the singer's normal voice plays through my head, just talking, before he starts singing.

I look up and stare at the sky until the sun starts climbing the sky.